An earphone or headphone is well-known in the prior art as an electro-acoustic transducer which offers simplicity, compactness and portability.
The earphone has such a construction that a molded case secures within it a small electro-acoustic transducer element of an electromagnet type provided with a pipe protrusively mounted on one end surface thereof and providing a sound path. Upon wearing, the earphone thus constructed is so attached as to insert or engage the pipe with an external auditory meatus. Although such earphone is very compact and convenient, the tone quality thereof is not completely satisfactory due to employment of the electromagnet arrangement. In addition, since the pipe is adapted to be inserted into the external auditory meatus, pressure upon wearing inevitably occurs and depending upon the depth the foregoing pipe is inserted into the external auditory meatus, the user feels a pain or an abnormality in the external auditory meatus. Furthermore, it is unavoidable that reproduced tone quality will be deteriorated.
To remove these drawbacks of such prior earphones, an improved earphone has been proposed. Utilizing a dynamic speaker unit and installing a pad on one side of a case to house the above unit as well as an elastic bow on one end of an external periphery of the case, upon operation, the pad is securedly pressed or attached to an outside of the auricle and the bow is caught in an external periphery of the auricle. However, the earphone of this type can not be stably worn and moreover, the reproduced tone quality may be deteriorated by the position in which the earphone is attached to the auricle.
On the other hand, such a headphone is widely used by providing a pair of housings on both ends of an elastic headband and securing the dynamic or static speaker and so on within the housings. Each housing is securedly pressed or attached to the auricles by utilizing the elasticity of the head band. Even in the headphone thus discussed, the elasticity of the head band causes a pressure on the head, and a discomfort upon wearing can not be avoided. Further, in wearing by a woman, she is liable to refuse the use of the headphone specifically because she is afraid that her hair style may be broken.